4 May 2026

​

The MFAA released its quarterly data recently and the headline number is worth pausing on. In the December 2025 quarter, mortgage brokers wrote 76.7% of all new residential home loans in Australia. That's the highest December quarter market share on record, and it's a meaningful jump from the 70% mark brokers crossed only a few years ago.

​

Three in four Australians taking out a new home loan went through a broker rather than direct to a bank. That's a striking number, and it's worth asking what's actually driving it. Because plenty of people still walk into their existing bank's branch, sign whatever they're offered, and assume they're getting the same outcome. They're often not.

​

The shift, in context

​

Twenty years ago, the broker share of new home loans sat at around 30%. Today it's 76.7%. That trajectory hasn't happened by accident, and it isn't a marketing win for the broker industry. It's borrowers voting with their feet because the experience and the outcomes have demonstrably improved when a broker sits between them and the lender.

​

Three things have changed materially in that time.

​

The lender market has fragmented. There are now around 100 active lenders in the Australian residential mortgage market, ranging from the big four through the regionals, mutuals, non bank lenders and specialists. Each has different policies, different appetite for different borrower types, and meaningfully different pricing for the same loan. No single lender (and certainly no single bank branch) can offer the best outcome for every borrower walking through the door.

​

Lender policy has become more nuanced. The way a bank treats casual income, contract income, bonus and RSU income, self employed earnings, foreign income, child support, and rental income from existing properties varies enormously between lenders. The same applicant can be assessed as borrowing $750,000 by one lender and $1.1 million by another. Knowing which lender to put a particular profile in front of is a meaningful skill.

​

The cost of getting it wrong has gone up. In a low rate environment, paying 0.30% more than necessary on your loan was annoying. In the current rate environment, on a typical Melbourne owner occupier loan, the same 0.30% gap is $200 to $400 a month. Borrowers are increasingly unwilling to leave that money on the table.

​

What a broker actually does

​

There's a misconception worth clearing up. Plenty of people assume a broker is essentially a search engine for the best rate. That's part of it, but it's not the part that creates most of the value.

Here's what actually happens in a typical Claremont engagement.

​

Lender matching, not rate shopping. The first job is working out which lenders will actually approve your application on the most favourable terms, given your specific financial position. Income type, deposit source, debt structure, employment history, credit profile, and the property itself all influence the answer. A 30 minute conversation upfront usually narrows the lender panel from 60+ down to a shortlist of three or four that genuinely suit your circumstances.

​

Borrowing capacity optimisation. This is where the real differences emerge. Two lenders looking at the same applicant can come up with borrowing capacity numbers that differ by $100,000 or more, purely because of how they treat HECS debt, share scheme income, dependent expenses, or existing investment property cashflows. We see this every week. The right lender choice can be the difference between getting the property you want and missing out.

​

Pricing negotiation. The advertised rate is rarely the rate available. Lenders almost universally have pricing discretion their assessors can apply, and brokers know how to ask for it. On a $750,000 loan, getting the lender to apply an extra 0.15% to 0.20% pricing discount is worth $1,500 to $2,000 a year for the entire life of the loan.

​

Structure and product selection. Choosing between offset and redraw, fixed and variable, principal and interest or interest only, single loan or split, package or basic product. These decisions have material implications for tax, flexibility and total interest paid, and they're often glossed over in a direct to bank conversation.

​

Application management. Getting a complex application approved cleanly the first time is genuinely a craft. Pre empting the assessor's questions, presenting income documentation in the format the lender prefers, and resolving issues before they become declines saves time and protects your credit file.

​

Ongoing review. A good broker doesn't disappear after settlement. A standing review every 12 to 18 months is standard, and it's the mechanism that catches things like the loyalty tax (where lenders quietly hold existing customers on higher rates than new ones) before it becomes expensive.

 

What it costs you

​

This is the question we get asked most, and the answer is straightforward. In Australia, brokers are paid by the lender, not the borrower. There's no fee to use a broker for a standard residential or commercial loan in almost every case. The lender pays an upfront commission and an ongoing trail commission, both of which are fully disclosed and don't affect the rate or terms you receive.

That arrangement creates an obvious question: doesn't this incentivise brokers to push borrowers toward the lender that pays the most? In practice, the regulatory framework prevents it. Australian mortgage brokers operate under a Best Interests Duty, introduced in 2021, which legally requires us to recommend the loan that's in your best interests, not the one that pays the highest commission. Breaches carry significant penalties and ASIC has been actively enforcing it.

​

There are some specialist scenarios (commercial lending above a certain size, complex SMSF structures, very high LVR construction lending) where a broker fee may apply. When that's the case, it's disclosed upfront in writing before any work is done.

​

Why the share keeps climbing

​

A few practical reasons the broker share has continued to grow even as the market has tightened.

Banks have closed branches. The convenience advantage of walking into a local branch and seeing your banker has eroded, particularly in regional and outer metro areas. Brokers, by contrast, are still genuinely accessible.

​

Loan applications have become more complex. The post Hayne Royal Commission lending environment requires more documentation, more verification, and more careful structuring than was the case a decade ago. Borrowers increasingly want someone who deals with this every day rather than a banker who handles three or four applications a month.

​

Information asymmetry is rising. With around 100 lenders in the market and pricing changing weekly, individual borrowers have no realistic way to assess whether they're getting a competitive deal. Brokers see the full market every day, which makes them a useful counterweight to lender marketing.

​

Outcomes have been measurable. Word of mouth among borrowers in 2026 is overwhelmingly positive. People who've used a broker are recommending them to friends and family, which is a far stronger driver of the 76.7% number than any industry advertising campaign.

​

The honest version

​

Brokers aren't right for everyone. If you have a simple, low LVR loan with a straightforward income picture, and you're willing to do the legwork yourself, going direct to a single lender can work fine. Some banks also offer modest discounts to existing customers that aren't always available through the broker channel.

​

Where brokers genuinely add value is in the complex cases (self employed, contract income, RSUs, multiple properties, SMSF, construction, commercial), the borderline cases (where lender choice is the difference between approval and decline), and the price sensitive cases (where the difference between a sharp rate and an average one compounds into real money over time).

​

For most Australian borrowers, that's a wide enough net to capture them. Hence 76.7%.

​

What to expect from a Claremont conversation

​

A first meeting with us is free, takes around 45 minutes, and produces a clear picture of: what you can borrow with which lenders, what your repayments would look like across a few realistic scenarios, what structure suits your situation, and what the next steps look like. No paperwork required upfront, no obligation to proceed.

​

If you've been thinking about reviewing your loan, buying a property, or restructuring an existing portfolio, get in touch with the Claremont team. We'll give you straight answers and only recommend changes when there's something genuinely worth doing.